Door seals, and in particular door interior window seals for attaching to a door window opening in an automotive vehicle, must perform many functions. Primarily this includes prevention of various contaminants such as moisture, dirt and debris from getting into the door interior. The seal must also prevent noise such as road, engine, and wind noise from penetrating into the passenger compartment. Additionally, the seal determines the quality of the fit between a vehicle door interior trim panel, inner door panel and side window. A good fit affects window opening and closing characteristics, as well as window rattle and seal appearance, important elements in customer perception of vehicle quality.
To accomplish these functions effectively, a seal must not only be designed to properly interact with the vehicle door interior trim panel, the inner door panel and side window, but must also be easily attached to the flange of the inner door panel while being difficult to remove. Low seal attachment effort is necessary to expedite vehicle assembly, while seal extraction effort must be high to provide seal retention and to prevent seal disengagement during window usage. Low seal attachment effort is particularly important when attaching door interior window seals because of the importance of proper alignment of the seal with respect to the inner door panel. More specifically, during vehicle assembly the seal is first attached to the interior trim panel and then both the interior trim panel and seal are attached to the inner door panel via the seal. The seal must be manipulated longitudinally of the vehicle to insure proper alignment of the interior trim panel with respect to the inner door panel. High attachment effort of the seal on to the inner door panel flange would hinder such manipulation.
In addition to meeting attachment and manipulation effort requirements, a door interior window seal must also be capable of fitting on the inner door panel flange securely. Variable thickness inner door panel flanges may cause a seal to fit improperly, thus decreasing the debris barrier and noise attenuation functions. Previous window seal designs had to trade off low insertion efforts, and more specifically the ability to properly align the interior trim panel with respect to the inner door panel, in order to have a seal that would securely hold the interior trim panel to the inner door panel flange.
What is desired than is a door interior window seal that facilitates attachment of the interior trim panel to the inner door panel flange via the seal, allows for low effort longitudinal adjustment of the interior trim panel relative to the inner door panel, and provides secure attachment of the interior trim panel to the inner door panel at the seal interface.